US TV

Slightly trickier meme this week. As you know, many shows last several seasons/series. Actors can get bored, get ill, have contract negotiation issues – or sadly they can die. In the case of pilots, they may not work at all well and might need to be gotten rid of.

In these cases, the producers can write them out or recast the character. Sometimes, this can actually be for the best, with the replacement actor turning out to be better than the original.

So meme of the week this week is

What’s been your favourite piece of recasting?

There’s a lot to choose from. Dynasty and Dallas did a whole lot of recasting – was Emma Samms a better Fallon than Pamela Sue Martin, who was also recast on The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew? Doctor Who recasts all the time. Bewitched recast the original Darren, and then reused all his scripts. Roseanne replaced Alicia Goranson with Sarah Chalke. The A-Team recast Face in between pilot and series. Ruby keeps dying in Supernatural and being replaced.

I’ll open it up as well to US/UK remakes of shows, just in case you preferred Harvey Keitel (or even Colm Meaney) to Philip Glenister in Life on Mars. And I’ll let you have movie series as well, just in case you think Robin Curtis was better than Kirstie Alley in Star Trek, for some reason.

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.